Gerald Ford was the accidental President. He had not run for or been elected as President or Vice-President. However, he was selected as V.P. when Spiro Agnew resigned due to bribery accusations and then, when Nixon resigned due to his involvement with and cover up of the Watergate break in and associated dirty tricks, Ford was the next man up.
The name Ford was given at birth was actually Leslie Lynch King, Jr. However, due to abuse, Ford’s mother left her husband (Ford’s biological father) shortly after Ford’s birth. She went to live with her parents for a couple of years, and began a relationship with and married a man named Gerald Ford when (future President) Ford was two. They started calling the child Gerald Ford. He was never formally adopted and didn’t legally change his name until he was twenty-two years old. Ford was a gifted football player and played for the Michigan championship teams in 1932 and 1933. He passed on offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers and, instead, went to law school at Yale.
Ford graduated in 1941 and opened a law office in May of that year, but after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of that year, Ford enlisted in the Navy. Among other assignments, Ford served on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific theater.
In 1948, he married Betty Ford. He also ran for Congress for the first time that year. The wedding was apparently delayed because Betty had been divorced and had been a dancer. That raised the potential for scandal at the time. But, he won his election and would serve in the House of Representatives for 25 years. Ford described his philosophy as “a moderate in domestic affairs, an internationalist in foreign affairs, and a conservative in fiscal policy.” After LBJ’s landslide victory in 1964, Ford was selected to replace Indiana’s Charles Halleck as House Minority Leader.
When Agnew resigned the Vice-Presidency, Ford was the strong recommendation of Congressional leaders consulted by Nixon. Ford was confirmed by the Senate as the new Vice-President by a vote of 92-3 on November 27, 1973. On August 1, 1974, White House Chief of Staff, Alexander Haig told Ford that smoking gun evidence of Nixon’s involvement with the Watergate scandal had been found and that an impeachment or resignation was likely. Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, and Ford became President. As part of his speech upon taking office, Ford stated, “our long national nightmare is over.” He selected Nelson Rockefeller to be his Vice-President. Rockefeller’s top competitor for the position was apparently George H.W. Bush.
On September 8, 1974, Ford allowed Nixon to escape responsibility for his actions by giving him a full pardon “for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974.” His rationale was that Nixon had suffered enough by being forced to resign and that prosecution would disrupt the tranquility of the United States. The move undermined Ford’s credibility and probably caused his loss in the 1976 election.
Ford also introduced a conditional amnesty program, granting amnesty to draft dodgers conditioned upon their reaffirming their allegiance to the United States and serving two years working in a public service job. Later on, President Carter would grant a full pardon. Ford replaced most of Nixon’s cabinet, keeping only Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Secretary of the Treasury William Simon. Among those chosen by Ford was Donald Rumsfeld who would be his Chief of Staff and then Secretary of Defense. Dick Cheney would take Rumsfeld’s place as Chief of Staff. Indiana’s Earl Butz was named Secretary of Agriculture. Butz was forced to resign after making some spectacularly racist comments.
The 1974 midterm elections were predictably bad for the Republicans, giving the Democrats a majority in the House with 291 out of the 435 seats and 61 seats in the Senate. Inflation had become a major concern, climbing to 12%. Ford urged citizens to reduce spending and consumption, advocated a one-time 5% increase in the corporate income tax, and a reduction of $4.1 billion in the federal budget. Unemployment reached 9% in 1975 and the country was experiencing its worst recession since the Great Depression. Reversing course, Ford sought to stimulate economic activity by advocating a tax cut.
Internationally, relations with the Soviet Union and China continued to thaw. Tensions remained high in the Middle East, and Kissinger’s efforts at peace negotiations were mostly ineffective. Following the peace accords negotiated by the Nixon administration, American forces were withdrawn from South Vietnam. On April 29-30, Americans and “at-risk” Vietnamese were evacuated from Saigon as the North Vietnamese were taking over the city. 130,000 Vietnamese refugees came to the United States in 1975.
Ford was the subject of two assassination attempts. On September 5, 1975, in Sacramento, Charles Manson follower, “Squeaky” Fromme attempted to shoot President Ford with a Colt-45 pistol but was thwarted by the Secret Service. On September 22, 1975, in San Francisco, Sara Jane Moore took a shot at the President. The first shot missed and a retired marine in the crowd grabbed her gun as she fired off a second shot which also, consequently, missed the President.
The election of 1976 was a tough one for Ford. He lost, but kept it surprisingly close given the circumstances – losing by 2% in the popular vote and 57 electoral votes. He faced a conservative insurgency from the Republican right in the campaign of Ronald Reagan. Ford dumped the more liberal Rockefeller and chose Bob Dole as a running mate. The nomination still seemed to be up in the air by the time of the Republican convention, but Ford got a narrow majority on the first ballot. In addition to party opposition also had to contend with high inflation, high unemployment, the loss of Vietnam, and (less seriously) Chevy Chase caricaturing him on Saturday Night Live as a klutz due to a couple of stumbles Ford had taken. However, he also benefited from the imagery of being the incumbent President during extensive Bicentennial celebrations. Ultimately, however, he was defeated by the outsider campaign of Jimmy Carter.
Living to age 93, Ford would go on to enjoy one of the longest post-Presidencies to date — at 29 years, second to only Jimmy Carter (35 years) and Herbert Hoover (31 years).
He was delicious.